Home»All Photographs»Giving Back - Animals

I haven't known even a second of my life that I haven't had an animal as a part of it. I have owned and loved dogs of many ages, breeds and sizes from the moment I was born. I've also had, or still currently have, fish, hamsters, guinea pig, turtles and chickens throughout my life. My daughters have also added various bugs and insects, lizards and frogs to that list from time to time. As a child, we briefly had a pet sitting business.

Caring for animal welfare has been on my heart for as long as I can remember. Around age 12, I began to learn more about how there were animals not being treated well. I saw an ad about greyhounds and started donating some of my hard-earned babysitting money to a greyhound rescue organization, along with some other animal rescue organizations.
Humans benefit so much from having relationships with animals, and they ask for so little in return! They deserve to be loved and have happy homes.

I guess it's only natural that I would begin to be drawn to animal rescue work as a photographer.

It has been proven that animals with professional photos taken of them, showing them playing and/or out of the kennel, have a greater chance of adoption than those with photos of sad faces through kennel bars. That isn't to say that the sad kennel photos are bad - they are certainly better than not having a photo of the animal!

The animal control officers and volunteers at the shelter are just already working so hard caring for, walking and cleaning after the animals, there often isn't enough time to do the photographing and photo editing required to get the "happy" shots.

I always leave the shelter in awe and admiration of the individuals working and volunteering at the shelter regularly. It is HARD work - and often thankless work - and these individuals really do care for and about these animals.

I will admit that even though I wanted to help in shelters for a long time, I avoided it at first because I was afraid it would be too sad. While it isn't always easy to leave the shelter without some tears for the sweet furry souls that are still there looking for someone to love them and take them home, I leave our local shelter feeling really good about what I have done.

It especially makes me happy when our humane society posts photos I have taken of animals with a big "Adopted" stamp over them! One fun thing I got to do recently was have a mini shoot with our city manager and his family, along with their dog Milo, who they rescued from the shelter. It was so heartwarming to see him having fun with his new forever family! Our local newspaper gave Milo and his family some front page publicity using one of these photos, and in turn gave some great publicity to the shelter.

Below you will find some of my favorites from photos I have taken of animals at the shelter. I will update it from time to time. I am excited to tell you that many of these animals have since been adopted! :) I have also a included a few of my favorites from the shoot I did with Milo and his family.